Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Mapping Medieval Geographies : Cartography and Geographical thought in the Latin West and Beyong, 300-1600, UCLA, 28-30 May 2009

Geography as it was understood and practiced in the Middle Ages, within both eastern and western traditions, and as represented both graphically and textually, is a subject of renewed interest and importance among historians, philologists and geographers. This conference aims to promote an exchange between those of different disciplines working on geographical ideas and thinking from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance on two themes : "Translation, transmission, transculturation" will focus on the continuities in geographical knowledge from Antiquity into and through the Middle Ages ; the complex transculturation of formal geographical and cartographic knowledge between Latin, Byzantine and Islamic scholars and travelers ; and the copying and transmission of 'key' geographical texts and sources, and their selection and adaptation. "Mapping, imagining, placing" will consider questions of 'scale, place, and the geographical imagination' looking at the changing distinctiveness, character and uses of 'geography' in medieval thought ; the intertextual nature of 'medieval geography' between visual (cartographic) and textual descriptions, and connections between "thinking geographically" (i.e., spatial sensibility) and 'geographical thinking' (i.e., writing and visualizing 'geography') in the Middle Ages.

Anticipated guest speakers include : Daniel Birkholz (University of Texas at Austin), Veronica della Dora (University of Bristol), Kathy Lavezzo (University of Iowa), Natalia Lozovsky (UC Berkeley), Andrew Merrills (University of Leicester), Meg Roland (Marylhurst University), Emilie Savage-Smith (University of Oxford) and Alessandro Scafi (The Warburg Institute, London). The conference was organized by Dr Keith D. Lilley (School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast) and the late Professor Denis Cosgrove (Geography, UCLA). Support has been provided by a generous grant from The Ahmanson Foundation, with additional funding from CMRS, the UCLA Vice Chancellor for Research, and the Humanities Division of the UCLA College of Letters and Science. Advance registration requested. Papers will be distributed in advance to those registered to attend the conference.

Place : TBA

Time : TBA

Advance Registration : TBA

Fee : None

Seating : Seating is limited. Seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Parking permits are $9 from any UCLA Parking Services kiosk. Tell them you are here to attend "the Mapping Medieval Geographies Conference". You will be directed to park in the nearest available lot.